Officials: Most downtown buildings kept in good condition by owners

Nov. 11, 2013

At right, a view of a crumbling brick communal wall at 205 S. Front St., taken in 2012, before repairs being made. At left, a view of the new facade on the communal wall. / Mark Tower and Jonathon Bird/Fremont News-Messenge

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Watchdog/enterprise reporter

A view of the new facade on the communal wall located at 205 S. Front Street in Fremont. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

About the series

Saturday: A historical look at downtown Fremont, and its past, present and future. Today: We examine the condition of downtown buildings, many of which were built in the late 1800s, and downtown infrastructure. Tuesday: What is Fremont doing to draw businesses, restaurants and development downtown? We also take a look at some successful downtowns. Wednesday: What does downtown Fremont’s future look like? What would residents like to see, and what needs to be done to make it happen?

A view from inside of Grund Drug in Fremont shows the cupboards saved from the location of the original Grund Drug. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

An old cash register used in the original Grund Drug is on display in the shop. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

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FREMONT — Last spring, one of the most visible downtown buildings was torn down after it had fallen into disrepair.

The three-story brick building at the corner of State and Front streets sat empty and was plagued with a crumbling roof and other structural issues.

It last housed Valerie’s Upscale Resale, which had left for the Potter Village Shopping Center years earlier.

“It was more than 100 years old, and it just couldn’t be saved,” said Mike Jay, Fremont economic development director.

Today, the site is an empty lot. And that’s not necessarily a good thing, given that it’s a gateway to Fremont’s historic downtown.

“The one thing you want to try to do is preserve the buildings,” he said. “You don’t want to bring the buildings down.”

Otherwise, having buildings torn down here and there in a downtown gives a “gap-tooth” look, he said.

Across the street from the lot that once held the Valerie’s building is another vacant lot. Decades ago, JC Penney was there, and the building was torn down in 2007.

“You can rebuild,” Jay said. “There are high traffic counts there. People continue to look at that corner.”

Most of the downtown buildings that remain, many of which were built in the late 1800s, are in good shape, he said.

“The interesting thing is there are more business owners who are owning their buildings than there were 20 years ago,” Jay said. “When a business owner owns their own building, they tend to keep it in better repair.”

Buildings in good shape

Fire Chief Dave Foos and Assistant Chief Dean Schneider backed up Jay’s comments that the owners keep their buildings in good shape.

None of the buildings on Front Street have had safety citations since Foos has been chief, Foos said. He took the job in 2010.

“The pride of all the business people down there shows with the care of their buildings,” he said.

Most of the buildings are rented, although some have remained empty for an extended period of time, Jay said.

The Front Street building that housed Peebles until 2004 and once housed the department store Joseph’s is an example. It has not had a tenant in years, although antiques are displayed in the windows.

Although many of the buildings have three stories and basements, some have uses limited to the first floors.

“The basements in most of them aren’t usable,” Jay said. “That’s because some of them have dirt floors.”

Some of the upper floors are empty or used for light storage because many of them would need to be remodeled to be turned into apartments, Foos and Schneider said. That takes money, and changing a building’s use from storage, for example, to an apartment must meet state building and safety standards, Foos said.

Rules for buildings’ use can vary.

If a building owner wants to take one of the floors currently used for business purposes and turn it into an apartment, the owner must hire an architect and submit plans to the Ohio Department of Commerce, Foos said.

The state approves those plans, and then state officials work with the fire department to make sure the work meets the standards. The plans to go the state because Sandusky County does not have a building department, Foos said.

If the county had a building department, the plans would be approved there, he said.

Maintenance required

In downtown Fremont, buildings’ second and third floors do have potential for residential and retail use, if a developer can put the money into fixing them up, Jay said.

For most building owners, maintenance work is constant, Foos said.

“I would have to assume the older a building is, the more maintenance it requires,” he said.

Craig and Steven Miller are downtown developers who own several buildings, including the former Peebles/Joseph’s building, and have remodeled some of them to include apartments, Jay and the fire officials said.

“I wish everyone would maintain their buildings as well as they do,” Jay said.

He and the fire officials described an apartment the Millers remodeled that included original woodwork and a spiral staircase. The Millers declined to comment for this story or open any of their buildings to The News-Messenger.

In 2012, the Millers and the city had a dispute over one of their buildings. The brick wall of the building at 205 S. Front St. facing an empty lot owned by the city — which is where the Montgomery Ward building was until it was torn down in 1977 — began to crumble, and plaster peeled off and fell into the parking lot.

The wall was considered communal property between the Millers and the city. Both parties went to court over who should fix it.

Ultimately, the city paid the Millers an $80,000 settlement, and the Millers repaired the wall.

Jeff Osborne, co-owner of the Grund Drug Store, co-owns his one-story building with neighboring business Genesis Insurance Group. The building was built in the 1970s, making it one of the newer structures downtown.

“It’s in good shape,” he said. “We do maintain it. I guess there’s always more to be done, but money kind of dictates that.”